nov/dec 2016: news page

Concept drawing by wHY of future ICA LA space featuring new logo designed by Mark Bradford

The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA) unveiled a new logo and visual identity designed in collaboration with renowned Los Angeles-based artist Mark Bradford. Bradford, internationally known for his multi-layered collage paintings, was chosen unanimously to design the visual identity of the former Santa Monica Museum of Art as it moves to a new location in Downtown LA. The new the 12,700-square-foot location -designed by wHY, under the direction of founder Kulapat Yantrasast-will house art galleries, an education annex, indoor/outdoor café, and a garden. ICA LA is set to open its new location in fall 2017.

Anicka Yi has won the 11th edition of the Hugo Boss Prize, administered by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. The Seoul-born, New York-based Yi, described as an “olfactory artist,” will receive an award of $100,000 and a solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York set to open in April 2017. This year’s five-person international jury included Guggenheim curator Katherine Brinson, ICA Boston senior curator Dan Myers, Kunsthalle Basel director Elena Filipovic, Artforum editor-in-chief Michelle Kuo, and the Guggenheim’s Latin American art curator Pablo León de la Barra. In an official state the jury described, “We are particularly compelled by the way Yi’s sculptures and installations make public and strange, and thus newly addressable, our deeply subjective corporeal realities.” Previous recipients of the award include Matthew Barney (winner of the inaugural prize in 1996), Pierre Huyghe (2002), Rirkrit Tiravanija (2004), Danh Vo (2012), and Paul Chan (2014).

The Nasher Sculpture Center announced French artist Pierre Huyghe as the recipient of the 2017 Nasher Prize. Pierre Huyghe was awarded the $100,000 prize, by the nine-member jury in recognition of his consistent drive to find “new ways to bring together unconventional and heterogeneous materials into a practice exceeding the sum of its multifarious parts.” In its second year, the Nasher Prize is the only international prize established to honor a living artist dedicated to sculpture. Huyghe will also receive a special award created by Italian architect Renzo Piano, ­to be commemorated in a special ceremony at the Nasher on April 1.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art announced that the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, has been selected as the first recipient of the Don Tyson Prize, a $200,000 award for outstanding achievement in American art.

The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) has announced a capital campaign to raise $75 million towards an expansion of the La Jolla facility, quadrupling the current gallery space. The announcement comes as the institution celebrates its 75th anniversary this past October. In January 2017, the museum will close its La Jolla location in preparation of the upcoming construction project.

The New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) New York has announced that it will be moving the dates of their 2017 fair from May to March 2-5, coinciding with Armory Fair and ADAA, and change of venue from Basketball City to West SoHo’s Skylight Clarkson North.

The 2016 CODAawards, highlighting the “successful integration of commissioned art into an interior, architectural, or public space,” have been announced. Among this year’s 10 category and two People’s Choice winners are CO Architects, SERA Architects, and Pae White in the Education category for the installation titled “Fauxcilitator,” a unique LED artwork in the atrium of the Collaborative Life Sciences Building at Portland State University, OR.
Photo: Bruce Forster

The Smithsonian American Art Museum has announced the launch of a 360-degree virtual reality (VR) app for Apple and Android mobile devices, titled “Renwick Gallery WONDER 360.” The app allows audiences to virtually explore the museum’s popular 2015-2016 exhibition, “WONDER,” in which nine leading contemporary artists-Jennifer Angus, Chakaia Booker, Gabriel Dawe, Tara Donovan, Patrick Dougherty, Janet Echelman, John Grade, Maya Lin, and Leo Villareal-were invited to create full-gallery, site-specfic installations inspired by the Renwick following its two-year renovation. “Wonder 360” is the first VR mobile app published by the Smithsonian.

The Clark Art Institute in Massachusetts has received a $2 million gift from the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust in support of its growing works on paper collection. In recognition of the gift, the institution will name a new gallery in its recently renovated Manton Research Center. The dedication of the Eugene V. Thaw Gallery for Works on Paper will take place during opening weekend at The Clark on November 12, 2016.

Suzan Frecon was announced recipient of the Artists’ Legacy Foundation’s 2016 Artist Award. The award is an unrestricted gift of $25,000 given annually to an accomplished painter or sculptor where evidence of the hand is a significant factor in making art. The 2016 panel of jurors included: Chief Curator at the Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth Michael Auping, painter Jane Hammond and sculptor Suzanne Caporael. This year marks the 10th Anniversary of the Artist Award, given by the Artists’ Legacy Foundation which was established by painter Squeak Carnwath, sculptor Viola Frey, and community advocate Gary Knecht in the late 1990s.

Jorge Daniel Veneciano has taken the role of ­Nanette L. Laitman Director at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD). Veneciano goes to MAD after serving as executive director of New York City’s El Museo del Barrio. Previously, he held the position of director at the Sheldon Museum of Art in Lincoln, NE following his role as curator at Studio Museum in Harlem and the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

Anna Katherine Brodbeck has been named The Nancy and Tim Hanley Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at the Dallas Museum of Art. Brodbeck join the Museum from the Carnegie Museum of Art, in Pittsburgh, PA, where she has worked as an Associate Curator since 2013. She is scheduled to begin in January 2017.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum has announced Abraham Thomas will join the museum’s staff as The Fleur and Charles Bresler Curator-in-Charge for the Renwick Gallery for contemporary craft and decorative art. Previously, Thomas acted as director of the Sir John Soane’s Museum in London from 2013 to 2015.